Tagged: Motivation

We’ve all heard stories about people who were once overweight and unhealthy that turned things around dramatically and became very fit. I think in all these stories the individual had some sort of “aha” moment that triggered in them the necessary motivation to change their lifestyle.

I wouldn’t say I’ve ever been exceedingly unhealthy or overweight, but about a year ago I did have an aha moment of sorts that caused me to dramatically change my lifestyle as it relates to my health. Since then I’m down about 20 pounds to a more ideal weight and feel better than ever.

This aha “moment” took several months (perhaps longer) to come together. It all boiled down to this: based on certain things I’ve been researching and learning about over the past couple years, I’ve come to the expectation that within the next 30 years, people will defeat heart disease, cancer, and the other ailments associated with aging. I could go into why I believe this, but that would take at least another blog post. Hopefully I’ll write that some day.

Anyway, if we assume I’m correct (and I of course believe I am), what does that mean? In thirty to forty years or so, the age-related ailments (including cancer and heart disease) that kill people today will not kill people. So if I’m alive in 40 years, I can expect to live much longer.

The key point here is that I still need to be alive and reasonably healthy when these breakthroughs happen. Some breakthroughs might happen within 20 years. Some might take 50 years.

By making small lifestyle changes that historically might have increased longevity by a year or two (and the healthy portion of my life by around 10 years), I might make it to the point where I can take advantage of these new medical technologies and increase my lifespan dramatically.

After coming to this realization, I just needed to learn more specifics about all the things I could do to be more healthy. Then I put that learning into practice. That’s also a good subject for another blog post or two.

As an example, for years I used to drink a couple cans of Mountain Dew per day. About a year ago (when my aha moment hit me), I just stopped one day. And it wasn’t hard at all – because I had a new, very powerful motivation.